Justin Esperon, Treasurer and Bargaining Team member
Management insists on giving counter proposals without proper edits. They disregard our improvements and refuse to highlight their proposed changes, creating confusion for our bargaining team. We have been courteous to management in being coherent and deliberate in the improvements we believe our members deserve. They continue to not show the same courtesy back.
Article 44 – Sick Leave: We proposed providing members with an expanded sick leave provision to care for sick family members, and support new parents, seeking parity with other sister union contracts.
Management presented Articles 6, 33 & 50 as a proposal package which we will need to respond to all together.
Article 6 – Bereavement Leave: Management still rejects the expansion of the definition of family and use of sick time because they view that as an “economic issue.” Management seems to prioritize the economic loss due to members using sick time over our well-being during our most vulnerable times. They continue to state that our contract is the most expansive of Rutgers policies and sister union contracts, without providing any supporting data to support.
Article 33 – Probationary Employees: We are seeking to improve the precarity of probationary employees and have proved to the university that there is benefit to including the union during the probationary period. We are in agreement that supervisors need to be accountable for their employees. Management has acknowledged the flaws in their prior practice.
Article 50 – Union Security: Management countered as part of the package amending this article so that July 1 would be the effective date to drop union membership.
Article 57 – FMLA, NJFL & NJ Safe Act Leave: While management stated that they recognize OneSource has many problems processing leave requests, they are not willing to address the issues in contract language. Instead, they want to create a committee to do the work that could be easily corrected in our contract. Management struck items we had proposed in the article such as parental leave, childbirth, bonding and lactation spaces. Management’s stubbornness continues to create confusion and discontent with our members in a time when these benefits are most important.
Article 42 – Seniority and Layoff: We are working to improve the rights of laid-off members by strengthening the process to secure a member’s right to interview for open university positions for which they are qualified, extend the time allowed to retain accrued sick leave, the time to retain vacation accrual rate, and expand the timeframe a recalled member can return without repeating a probationary period.
Our current contract expires June 30, 2026, but most provisions stay in place until we approve a new agreement. Now is the time to get involved for a strong contract by taking action on the URA Contract Action Page.
